A historical piece of artwork was lost in a fire that destroyed a large part of the church in the Little Portugal area of Toronto on Sunday.

Emergency crews were called to St. Anne's Anglican Church on Gladstone Avenue, north of Dundas Street West, just before 8 a.m.

Footage from the scene this morning showed the fire escalating to a fourth-alarm blaze. It caused significant structural damage and destroyed a large part of the roof.

Police said no injuries were reported, and the cause of the fire remains unknown.

Father Don Byers, the rector of St. Anne's, told reporters in an update on Sunday afternoon: “This is incredibly devastating for my congregation, it’s devastating for this community,” "I can’t express how much this church fire has impacted us."

St. Anne's Church was built between 1907 and 1908 and was designated as a heritage easement by the City of Toronto in 1996. It was the second St. Anne's Church built at that site. The first church was built there in 1862 on the same site facing Dovercourt.

Byers said the church provided a “vital resource” for many communities within the area and the city of Toronto as a whole. He said it hosted music and arts programs, Sunday worship services, community dinner, and served as a wedding venue among other activities.

Additionally, it was home to the only known religious artwork created by the Group of Seven, alongside other prominent paintings.

According to its website, the church's interior design was done by Group of Seven member J.E.H. MacDonald. He enlisted several other artists to help execute the design, including Fred Varley and Frank Carmichael, who partially created the esteemed Canadian Group of Painters, the Group of Seven.

However, in the update on Sunday afternoon, Byers said it appeared that the artwork had been destroyed.

Adding, "This is the only church that displayed artworks by members of the Group of Seven, and I’m sorry to say, this is lost from what I can see."

St. Anne's "Much more than just a building."

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Alejandra Bravo, Countess Davenport, highlighted the important role St. Anne's Church played both in the local community and within Canada.

She said, "It’s something we can’t replace in Canada and in the world, but it’s much more than just a building. “This is a place that provided support, home, love, and brought people from the community together, served the needs of those who needed it, and provided the spiritual support that people desperately needed during times they also went through difficult times.”

"Davenport has lost something that can never be replaced, and the grief expressed by people to our office is tremendous."

The church was designated as a national historic site by the Canadian government in 1996 due to its interior artworks.

The paintings were not just crafted by well-known Canadian artists, but according to Parks Canada, their detailed mix of written texts and narrative imagery, along with decorative plaster works and detailed architectural lines inside the building shows the 19th-century arts and crafts movement that sought to combine architecture, painting, and sculpture.

Bravo said it’s a loss “too great to comprehend.”

TFS: It’s too early to know the cause of the fire.

Police say they expect delays in the area and are using alternate routes as Gladstone Avenue is closed between College Street and Dundas Street while crews continue to battle the fire.

Deputy Chief of Fire Jim Jessop told the media, “At this stage, our primary focus is ensuring the remaining part of the fire and hot spots are extinguished so that we don’t allow it to spread, and the investigation will follow our usual scientific methodical approach.”

Jessop said the investigation will begin this afternoon, but “it is too early” to speculate on the cause of the fire.